Angus Kinnear says Joe Rodon made his desire to join Leeds United permanently even before the club had approached Tottenham Hotspur over a deal.
Rodon spent the 2023/24 season on loan at Elland Road and enjoyed one of the finest campaigns of his career, making 50 appearances across all competitions.
However, Leeds‘ failure to win promotion threw the possibility of him re-signing into doubt, as Premier League clubs quickly began to circle.
The trio of clubs who beat Leeds to the Premier League, as well as Brentford, all made plays to sign Rodon, but it was Elland Road where he always wanted to move.
At £10 million, Rodon was Leeds’ most expensive signing of the summer and clearly it was a deal the club were delighted to get over the line.
Rodon’s Leeds kit-launch gesture at Christmas
Speaking after his return was confirmed, Rodon made it clear that Leeds was the only club he wanted to join following the end of his loan spell.
Of course, footballers’ comments when signing for a new club should always be taken with a pinch of salt, but according to Kinnear, Rodon was going the extra mile to show his commitment as early as Christmas.
Speaking on the latest episode of the Square Ball Podcast, Kinnear claimed Leeds had not even approached Tottenham or Rodon’s agent by the time he made his wishes known.
The Leeds chief executive shared how as early as Christmas last year, Rodon was insisting he wanted to be apart of the club’s kit shoots, when at that point it was still very much up in the air whether he would be here this season.
He said: “When you get a player like Joe Rodon, after Christmas last year when we were doing our kit shoots, he insisted on being in the kit shoots for the following season.
“It is a disaster for the retail team because we hadn’t signed him, and all the imagery would have been dead. But Joe was desperate to be here, even before we spoke to Tottenham or his agent. But it shows his desire to be here, six months out.”
Kinnear shares Leeds’ Buendia rejection
Kinnear covered a host of different topics during this interview, one of which was Leeds’ failure to sign a number 10.
He specifically name dropped Aston Villa star Emi Buendia as someone they looked at but were turned down by, who would’ve been an incredible signing.
He said: “I can talk specifically about two examples, two players we thought would fit the bill, would be significantly better than who we have currently, bear in mind we’re looking at replacing a £40m player, which is obviously going to be challenging at Championship level.
“Buendia was on our list and, very clearly from Aston Villa, wasn’t going to be released and the player didn’t want to come back down to Championship level. He felt he served his time at Championship level.”
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